Knockdown furniture



1959 L. A. SWENSON KNOCKDOWN FURNITURE Filed ay 16, 1967 W "W w 4770PNEKUnited States Patent 3,427,669 KNOCKDOWN FURNITURE Lester A. Swenson,Roland, Iowa 50236 Filed May 16, 1967, Ser. No. 638,981 U.S. Cl. 93 Int.Cl. A47d 7/00, 13/06 6 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE BACKGROUND OFTHE INVENTION Field of the invention This invention relates to knockdowntype furniture construction and will be described in relation to anarticle of furniture susceptible of use both as a baby bed or crib andas a playpen.

Description of the prior art The concept of knockdown furniture isdisclosed in many prior art patents and includes many types ofdetachable or collapsible furniture components. The use of interlockingslidable parts is old per se, but in those forms where the parts arecompletely separable, there is usually found some auxiliary or appliedfastening elements that must be removed and thus are susceptible ofbecoming lost or damaged as well as frequently requiring the use oftools in their removal and application. In the collapsible type offurniture, the several parts generally re main attached to each other sothat even in the collapsed state, the total weight of the article isinvolved in its transportation or movement to a storage area and this isfrequently a disadvantage.

Summary The present invention contemplates an article of furniture whichwill be illustrated in the form of a combined baby bed or crib andplaypen, that may be completely assembled or disassembled easily andquickly without the use of any tools. The legs or supports arelongitudinally grooved or rabbeted so that each corner component isformed by interlocking two such legs or supports. This is accomplishedby sliding the legs with complementary grooves in longitudinalrelationship to each other. Braces which hold two legs in spacedrelationship and which also serve as siderails for the crib or playpen,are designed to extend transversely of the grooves at selected points sothat once the legs are longitudinally introduced to each other, theycannot be laterally displaced and can only be separated by a furtherrelative longitudinal movement.

A floor or bottom is fitted onto the assembled side and end portions sothat the erected unit is sufficiently rigid for its intended purpose andno auxiliary or applied fastening elements are required or necessary.

In its disassembled state, the several parts of this invention arecompletely detached from any other part to facilitate theirtransportation, movement or storage as desired.

The objects and purposes of this invention set forth, together with suchfurther objects and advantages as may appear herein, or be hereinafterpointed out, will be more fully described and developed in relation tothe detailed description of the accompanying drawing.

Brief description of the drawing FIG. 1 is a perspective viewillustrating this invention arranged as a baby bed or crib,

FIG. 2 is a cross sectional view taken on the line 22 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 3 is a cross sectional View taken on the line 33 of FIG. 1,

FIG. 4 is an exploded view of FIG. 2, and

FIG. 5 is an elevational view, partly in section, illus trating thisinvention inverted from the position shown in FIG. 1 for use as aplaypen.

Description of the preferred embodiment Referring to the drawings, anarticle of furniture embodying the principle of this invention is showngenerally at 10 in FIG. 1 as a baby bed or crib and at 12 in FIG. 5 as aplyapen. The construction for both uses is the same and includes theopposed end sections, 14 and 16, the opposed side sections 18 and 20 anda bottom or floor 22. Each of the end and side sections are similarlyconstructed and a detailed description of end section 16 and sidesection 20 as best seen in FIG. 1 will be suificient for anunderstanding of this invention.

End section 16 includes a pair of spaced parallel vertical leg orsupport components 24 and 26 that are secured together by a pair ofhorizontal, vertically spaced and parallel top and bottom rails 28 and30, respectively, with vertically disposed spaced and parallel slats 32secured between rails 28. Side section 20 has like parts which includethe leg or support components 34 and 36, top and bottom railsrespectively, 38 and 40, and slats 42.

Each of the leg components, as for example, members 24 and 36 areelongated, substantially rectangular in cross section and are providedwith like respective longitudinal grooves 44 and 46 that extend intosuch leg components parallel to their longest cross sectional dimensionas best seen in FIG. 4. The portion of each leg component at one side ofsaid groove is shortened so that member 24, for example, includes a longside 48 and a short side 50, with member 36 having the correspondingsides 52 and 54.

One of the novel features of this invention is the manner of attachmentof the top and bottom rails to the leg components and the slidableinterlocking engagements of two such components to form a completecorner post 36 which is accomplished as follows.

Each end of each horizontal rail is provided with an L-shaped notchwhich can be best illustrated by reference to FIG. 4 Where like numeralsare applied to the ends of rails 30 and 40 as shown to designate theshort side 58 and the long side 60 of such notch. Each notched end of arail is secured as by gluing or the like to one of the leg components inone of two arrangements designated generally at 62 and 64 in FIG. 4. Inthe arrangement shown at 62, the corner of the notch in the rail 30embraces the end of the long side 48 of the grooved end of leg component24 so that the long side 60 of the notched rail end extends transverselyof the end of side 48, groove 44 and the short side 50 of such legcomponent. The short side 58 of the notch in the rail end abuts and issecured to the long side 48 of leg component 24. In this position, it ispointed out that the long side 60 of the notched rail end extendstransversely past the short side 50 of leg component 24 and in spacedrelationship thereto to define a projection 66.

In the arrangement shown at 64, the corner of the notch in the rail endalso embraces the end of the long side 52 of the grooved end of legcomponent 36 but is arranged so that the relative positions of the shortand long sides 58 and 60, of the notch in the rail end are reversed fromthat shown in 62. Thus, in 64, it is the short end 58 of the notch whichextends transversely of the long side 52 of leg component 36 andpartially transversely of groove 46 to form the shoulder 68 but nottransversely of the short side 54 of the leg component 36 which is thecase of part 60 relative to part 50 in 62. Likewise, in 64 it is thelong side 60 of the rail notch which abuts and is secured to the longside 52 of leg component 36 whereas in 62, the short side 58 of saidnotch abuts the long side 48 of the leg segment 24. By thus reversingthe position of attachment of the notched rail end to different of thelike grooved leg components, an effective locking means for theassembled leg components results from projection 66 on one rail andshoulder 68 on another rail as follows.

In the formation of a corner post 56, two leg components, such as 24 and36 for example, can be introduced in endwise alignment and then he slidlongitudinally relative to each other for interlocking or meshingrelationship as seen in FIGS. 2 and 3. Each post 56 comprises one legcomponent on which the side rails are attached in the manner shown at 62in FIG. 4 and the other leg component as shown at 64. The resulting post56 is thus substantially square in cross section and the joined legcomponents cannot be laterally separated because of the respectiveshoulder 68 and projection 66 on opposite sides of the post and theoverlapping relationship of the short sides or arms 50 and 54 in the legcomponents 24 and 36. It will, of course, be understood that both legcomponents of one end section may be joined as described simultaneouslywith a leg component from the two side sections and once the four cornerposts are assembled, the floor or bottom 22 is designed to fit withinthe confines of the formed frame and to merely rest on the bottom railsinside of the several slats. Floor 22 is notched at the corners to fitthe posts 56 in an obvious manner and in addition to its primarypurpose, it serves to add rigidity to the assembled sides and endsagainst sway.

As seen in FIG. 1, the length of the posts 56 above the top rails ismuch less than the length of said posts below the bottom rails so thatin the arrangement of FIG. 1, I refer to the post portions above theupper rails as the short legs and the post portions below the lowerrails as the long legs. Thus because this article is supported on itslong legs in FIG. 1, bottom 22 is sufficiently high enough from floorlevel for purposes of a baby bed or crib. In FIG. 5, the entirestructure ismerely inverted and supported on its short legs, with bottomor floor 22 being placed on the lowermost rails where it is relativelyclose to floor level for use as a playpen.

The assembled structure illustrated as quite adequate and rigid for itsintended purposes and requires no auxiliary or applied fastening deiceto maintain this article in full usable condition. It can be easily andquickly disassembled by first removing the floor or bottom 22 and thenmerely sliding the end and side sections apart in the reverse manner inwhich they were installed. Once the parts are separated, it will beappreciated that each part can be carried separately, if necessary andthat all of the component parts can be stored in a minimum of space.Also the several parts by being entirely separable, can be stored indifferent places should space conditions require, or arranged as spacemay permit, for example, in transportation by car. It will thus beappreciated that the physical handling and storing of the knockdownfurniture described is considerably facilitated and simplified overfoldable or collapsible type furniture where even though the overallsize may be reduced, the bulk and weight remain and may be aconsiderable burden for many to handle conveniently.

From the foregoing it is thought a full understanding of constructionand operation of this invention will be had and the advantages of thesame will be appreciated. It will be understood that the phraseologyemployed herein is for the purpose of description and not for limitationand that modifications and changes in the construction and arrangementof this invention can be made within the scope of what is claimed,without departing from the spirit and purpose thereof.

I claim: 1. A knockdown baby bed comprising: a pair of end sections anda pair of side sections, each of said sections including,

a pair of vertically disposed spaced parallel leg components, a pair ofhorizontal vertically spaced rails secured at respective ends to eachrespective pair of leg components, each leg component being providedwith a like longitudinal groove, each end of each rail disposed tooverlie the groove on one of said leg components, and each leg componentcapable of being interlocked with another leg component by endwiseintroduction and longitudinal sliding movement relative thereto wherebysaid interlocked leg components define a corner post and said legcomponents cannot be laterally displaced by reason of the overlyingportions of said rails. 2. A baby bed as defined in claim 1 including aplurality of vertically disposed spaced and parallel slats securedbetween the upper and lower rails on each section. 3. A baby bed asdefined in claim 1 including a bottom member adapted to removably nestwithin the confines of the assembled side and end sections and to besupported by the lowermost rails and abutting said slats. 4. A device asdefined in claim 3 wherein: the distance from the top of the upper railsto the top of said corner posts is considerably less than the distancefrom the bottom of the lower rails to the bottom of said corner posts todefine the respective short and long corner posts,

said article when supported on said long posts defining a baby bed, and

said article when inverted and supported on said short posts and withsaid bottom member supported on the lower rails in inverted positiondefining a playpen whereby the bottom of said playpen is substantiallycloser to floor level than is the bottom when this article is used as abed.

5. A baby bed as defined in claim 1 wherein:

one side portion of each leg component formed by said groove defines ashort side and the other side portion defines a long side,

each end of each rail is provided with an L-shaped 5 6 notch defining along and short side respectively, References Cited and on each cornerpost, the long side of said notch on the UNITED STATES PATENTS rails onone leg component extend transversely of 2,586,251 2/1952 l 5 99X thelong side of said leg component and the short 5 2,8842% 4/1959 MFnhngeret a1 312 263 sid of said notch on the rails on the other inter- 3O211872/1962 Mltchell 312 263 locking leg component extend transversely of the3195968 7/1965 Freeman 312 263X Ion side of said other 1e com nent3218037 11/1965 Cork-y 5 99 X g PO 3 354 47s 11/1967 Mart1n 5-99X 6. Ababy bed as defined 1n clalrn 4 Wherem: u

the cross sectional shape of said leg components are 10 CASMIR NUNBERG,Primary Examiner rectangular, and

the cross sectional shape of said corner posts after the Us, C1, X R,

interlocking of two leg components is square. 312-26 3; 5-11

